


roar

by Julx3tte



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Lion King, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, They're Lions, blue lions - Freeform, but actually lions, but like, savanna AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29710263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julx3tte/pseuds/Julx3tte
Summary: the blue lion are in the midst of a territory war, and are down on manpower.then one day, ingrid comes back.she's not alonelion king au - slow burn - friends to lovers
Relationships: Ingrid Brandl Galatea/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 15
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> yeah
> 
> yeah
> 
> ....
> 
> yeah.

Sylvain’s been patrolling the northern border for a week now, and he’s still not sure how to feel about the last six months of non-stop patrols and hunts. All he wants to do is find some watering hole and wash his paws clean for once, and maybe slip away with one of the lionesses that they could spare from the fighting.

Goodness knows they could use the cubs, but they need the able bodies more.

The treeline is dense here, but just a bit back towards the open plains, past the tall bush, is a still-muddy road from the spare rain that fell recently, and Sylvain’s very much looking forward to sinking his tired legs into the soft dirt.

He’s just about to finish the last bit of his patrol and start the long trek back to where Dimitri’s camped when he feels it. 

For the last few days, Sylvain’s felt the sensitive hair on the back of his mane go taut- the one that tingles sometimes when hyenas come too close, or that shivers he’s about to sink the last bite on his dinner kill.

It does this when he’s being hunted.

He’s written it off as being tired. Who’s stupid enough to hunt one of Dimtiri’s Pride - the third in command, now that Ingrid’s gone and disappeared and - and so close to the border of their territory? 

Stupid enough not to heed the markings on the treeline? No one. Not now, not while the nearest water source is a quarter day in the _wrong_ _direction_ and any attacks have to come from there without being seen, somehow.

The other thing is, sometimes he can tell where the hunters are.

There’s a couple of them, and a few are far too inexperienced to be stalking someone like him. 

At first Sylvain thought they were one of the apes that lived in the nearby forest, but they wouldn’t get quite so low in the ground. Ghosts, maybe.

Sylvain marks the last tree on his path and starts a slow, meandering jog through the cool earth when he feels it a second time tonight. His ears twitch back, and the hair on his mane goes ramrod straight and his spine rolls.

Before he can turn around to look, whatever it is pounces on him, and Sylvain’s vision goes blank for a second before he scurries back onto his feet and scans around him.

Nothing.

Either there was a ghost, or some animal better at hunting than him is here, and between the two, the former is more likely.

The list goes: Dimitri, Felix, Ingrid, and Dedue. That’s it, and he knows for a fact that three of those are back home and one of them is probably dead.

Sylvain sprints to the open, hoping to make it to the plains and catch sight of his ghost before it gets another chance to pounce on him, when he sees the tall grass rustle.

He sinks his claws into the dirt to pivot, and is just about to pounce when he hears the strangest sound.

_ Mewwllll _ .

_ Is that a cu- _

Then the grass breaks and he’s so caught off guard that he doesn’t see the lioness till she’s right in his face.

Sylvain blinks twice to make sure he’s seeing exactly what he thinks, and rolls his shoulders back to pounce anyway.

_ It is a ghost, _ he thinks, summoning a powerful roar.

The lioness licks her lips and roars back. Then both their ears pick up the sound of the grass breaking again, and his eyes turn to see three cubs gingerly walking towards Ingrid.

Why they weren’t terrified that they were invading a full grown lion’s territory, Sylvain had no idea.

The important thing was, Ingrid was in his face with three cubs, and he’s  _ damn  _ sure it's none of theirs.

Ingrid sideyes him, and the glare knocks him to his haunches. Sylvain watches as Ingrid picks up the forward-most cub, licks it atop the head, and uses her paw to wash the dirt off of it’s shoulder.

He roars again to get the family’s attention, and Ingrid turns.

“What?” she says.

“You’re asking  _ me _ that?” he fires back.

“Are you going to escort us, or not?” she says plainly. Then she picks up the second cub to groom it, and Sylvain nearly rolls his eyes.

Leave it to Ingrid to disappear for months without a trace and come back with cubs born outside of the Pride.

That he has to take all of them back was bad enough, but what Ingrid doesn’t know is how badly stretched they are. Dimitri might kill the cubs on sight just to make a point, and Sylvain’s barely processed the fact that Ingrid’s in front of him - let alone what she’s brought with them - to convey that to her.

He needed a bath and spoils bigger than the tiny meerkat and hogs that he’s lived off during his patrols.  _ Then _ he could think about what he needed to handle  _ this _ .

“Fine,” he says, turning around and starting the long walk. “Let’s go.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dimitri goes roar
> 
> ingrid roars back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no this won't really follow azure moon  
> yes they are really lions  
> yes there is a dramatic plot :)  
> and yes, ingrid has cubs : ))))

Dimitri takes it about as well as Sylvain expects. 

They’ve barely made it to the edge of camp when Felix stops them short of the brush separating Dimitri’s rest area from where the rest of the pride lay. It’s a few dozen meters walk, and Sylvain can see the tracks in the mud close to the thicket blocking them from seeing where Dimitri was.

He glances at Sylvain first, sniffs out the scent of Ingrid and the cubs, and raises a stoic eyebrow at her. 

Ingrid huffs and stretches her back, hind legs planted firmly in front of the cubs, and comes back to all fours. 

“Yes?” she asks.

“Dimtiri’s not going to like this,” he says simply.

Sylvain can’t agree more.

It was an awkward walk back. Two adult lions traveling is plenty to keep the rest of the animals away from them, so it was eerily quiet, save for the cub’s occasional yipping. 

Ingrid offered nothing, and he didn’t ask; Sylvain guessed that she’d wait till she had an audience with Dimitri before trying to say anything.

He thought, then, that it would be a tall order to get anything less than Dimitri  _ barely _ not killing the cubs and maybe her on the spot.

Now, he thinks, as they follow Felix into the clearing - Sylvain notices the way the cubs walk carefully behind their mother, holding back their curiosity to sniff everything in sight - it’s going to be a tall order to even get in his sight.

Something’s happened. Sylvain’s not sure if Ingrid can tell, but Felix’s tail is swishing in the air with a little too much wake, and he can’t see any of the other lionesses anywhere in the camp. 

It’s too early in the day for a hunt, and too late in the afternoon for sleep, which means they are somewhere doing  _ something  _ and that doesn’t bode well with the strict orders they all have. 

Sylvain turns his head to watch Ingrid. Her ears are pulled back and she’s lengthened her body to cover the cubs, and there’s an expression on her face that isn’t quite fear.

Surely she knows what could happen, and surely it means she’s desperate enough to come back to the pride knowing that, but Sylvain doesn’t want to pry any more than that.

The response is, as expected, volatile.

Dimitri snarls when they come into sight, coiling his body up and sniffing into the air to make a show of it.

“And what do we have here?” he says, pacing a slow semi-circle around his audience.

Felix is in front, and Sylvain, and half a step and in between them is Ingrid. The cubs are another step behind her, heads down and nearly in the dirt.

“I should kill you for even standing there,” he says, looking directly at Ingrid. 

She doesn’t flinch. Her body is as relaxed as she can manage, a message as much for Dimitri as for her cubs.

“I will tell you this much,” she says slowly, letting her tail swish in the soft dirt. “They are not a threat to your throne.”

Neither Sylvain or Felix move, but Dimitri snorts and snarls and walks back to his perch - an elephant skull, sans tusk. 

“You  _ promise _ me this?” he says. Sylvain can’t tell if he’s joking or not. 

“Would I bring them otherwise?” she says, shuffling them forward. She lifts up each of them by their neck scruff, presenting them in front of her.

“Two will be lionesses soon, and can bolster your strength for the war,” she says. “The other…”

Dimitri’s tail flicks. “You have returned... to offer me fighters? Rather than fight yourself?”

“I have returned because I have nowhere else to go,” Ingrid says. The cubs are still for a moment. Everything is still. Sylvain can feel the same tingle atop his mane, down his spine, that tells him something is happening. “And that this was home for me once.”

She keeps eye contact with Dimitri, a dangerous gamble, and Dimitri sighs and breaks the look.

He stands slowly, stretching his legs and his spine and his claws, and then he jumps forward in an instant.

Sylvain doesn’t even realize that he takes the half leap in between Dimitri and Ingrid till he’s on the ground, Dimitri’s paw on his throat.

“Have you lost your mind Sylvain?” Dimitri snarls in his face, as Felix uses his body to shove Dimitri off of him. Dimitri’s larger than the both of them, and quickly recovers, trotting towards Sylvain. “You would risk a usurper in our midst?”

Sylvain doesn’t glance at Ingrid, but he can tell she’s watching carefully, not sure how to get involved. She probably doesn’t expect Sylvain to stand up for her; he didn’t expect to either.

“You would risk the gift of a lioness and two more in a few months?” Sylvain asks back. 

“So we kill the boy. Keep the others.”

“No!” Ingrid yells, snarling, and all three of them can feel the killing instinct. “Touch him and you will die.”

Dimitri looks at each of them, and takes a half step backwards to diffuse the situation. 

“Felix?” he asks. The other lion turns and backs away from Ingrid, too.

Felix yawns, and turns his body so that he can lay on his front paws while watching the others. “Give them a few days. Let Ingrid tell her story. Then we can decide what to do with the boy,” he says. “It’s hot, the hunt will begin soon, and then we can talk more.”

Sylvain nods, and Ingrid, hearing peaceful words, backs down and sits back on her haunches. 

“So be it,” Dimitri says. “Sylvain, you brought them back. You watch them.”

Sylvain sighs. “Okay,” he says. Then he tilts his head at Ingrid and her cubs. “Let's go to the bath.” 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lions tired
> 
> lions wash
> 
> lions sleep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to ani @Anicdestiny for making Liongrid fanart!! and helping create names!

Sylvain hasn’t had a chance to look closely at the cubs yet today.

He leads them out to the small, hidden pond that Dimitri’s encampment hides at its center, and the three little ones leap paw-first into the shallow water immediately.

Ingrid has been here before, and is far more cautious. She takes a drink first, and waits for the cubs to return to her, fur half-wet, paws muddy, so she can bathe them.

They’re well trained.

The girls go first, sitting underneath Ingrid’s jaw and.

Sylvain takes his own drink and starts to bathe himself, licking his paws clean first. He works out the matted fur around his ankles, and then works down his body.

It makes him think back to when he was a cub. They’re tiny - barely the length of his longer back paw, and their fur is still light and clean.

In contrast, Sylvain’s body has dark spots, raised scars that run the length of his rib cage. There’s a long, jagged one on his hind leg too, that he only survived thanks to some of the pride’s  _ other  _ allies.

They look sort of like Ingrid, he thinks. They’ve got her jaw, and they have her gait. It’s somewhere between elegant and sinister. Sylvain hopes they don’t also have her appetite. 

Ingrid’s obviously used to the way they squirm around, and give them a few warning bites to stay still enough, lest she scruff them. Iris and Lidah eventually allow themselves to be washed and curl up to the side of their mother as soon as they’re done, making room for the boy.

Sylvain’s done his best  _ not _ to inspect him. Male cubs carry the features of their father, and that’s the question Sylvain wants least to know the answer to.

Still, he can’t help it.

Greyson has a thin face, and bright eyes. His body’s stocky, and he’s got plenty to grow into, but he’s got some of his mother’s strong lines. His fur’s darker than Ingrid’s by a shade, and there’s not yet fuz where his mane will grow out. 

The question will be unavoidable then, but the boy’s got another half a year or more before the visible hairs will show.

Sylvain finishes his grooming as Ingrid finishes the cubs, and she catches him about to observe her, too. 

It’s almost hard to tell she’s given birth this year. 

Ingrid flits her tail to tell him to stop staring, pushes the cubs into a pile, and stands up to groom herself. Sylvain turns his back to her, but breaks the silence when he hears the cubs’ snoring.

“I won’t pry, you know,” he says lazily, shaking the dust off of his mane. “I’m also not asking.”

There’s a beat before Ingrid replies. 

“Yeah.”

There’s weariness in her voice, and Sylvain’s brain thinks of where it might come from. Parenthood surely, but there are yet-unasked questions that rise as he hears Ingrid’s sigh.

How long have they been prideless? Did Ingrid leave them  _ before _ she was pregnant, or just when it was going to be too obvious to stay? Did she take a mate, or was it something else?

Questions he wouldn’t ask one of his oldest friends, yet rang in his mind.

Ingrid seems to read them, because she sighs again.

“I’m not- not yet okay?” she says simply, and Sylvain hears her walking back around her cubs, wrapping her body around them. They’re too old to milk, but they instinctively draw to Ingrid’s belly.

Sylvain nods.

“You’re safe here,” he says, before leaving the clearing to stand watch outside, head on his paws. 

Dimitri would probably send her out onto the hunt soon, as a test of loyalty, pride over her cubs, and Sylvain will likely be responsible for them until she returns.

He doubts that Dimitri would plan anything so sinister, but it’s good to save energy where he can, so Sylvain takes note of the familiar scents of their encampment - of the warm grass and the tiny breeze that carries out the lion’s markings out to the plains - and twitches his ears.

It’s time to rest. He’s glad to be home, and he’s glad that Ingrid has found her way home, too. 

**Author's Note:**

> a re-write of a ficlet I wrote in a collection, but more drama, more plot, and way, way more romance.
> 
> .... okay....
> 
> next ch soon!


End file.
